Thrillville
Frontier's mini-game mash-up rocks. Find out why inside.
Published: December 10, 2006
The whole idea of running every aspect of a theme park, from finances to PR to maintenance to construction isn't exactly something that most tweens and teens are interested in -- or at least not any that I know of. And yet, no part of Thrillville (save for perhaps the matchmaking) feels like it's pandering to the target audience which, make no mistake, is the younger crowd. Maybe that's because the game doesn't feel much like it's aimed at any one group, which means that both kids and their parents will find equal parts fun.
It all starts with creating a character, which you can then tweak with the usual bevy of options; hair, clothing, and color tweaks, and a more than a few pre-set templates for height, age and gender. With your avatar chosen, you can hop into the storyline, which involves your semi-insane Uncle Mortimer gifting you with running his amusement park, Thrillville. As things move on and you learn the basics, you'll start the process of revitalizing the other parks to combat the encroaching thread of rival Globo-Joy.
But I'm getting ahead of myself here. See, if Frontier Developments had thrown the whole business of managing the park at you, not even the most OCD-addled MBA would be able to juggle everything from the start, which is why It's slowly spoon fed out over the course of the game's five differently themed parks (each also contain multiple sections within that theme), allowing you to learn things a bit at a time before finally being turned loose to fully run the final park.
Right from the start, the game teaches by actually having you do things. By stepping into a handful of colored light columns, you're given a basic overview of park operations and then given an example that counts toward you total goals. See, goals help build cash and slowly move you toward enough progress to open up the next park, though you're never forced to jump ahead. The go-at-your-own-pace approach works, and works well, since it will likely take a little longer than the first park to really start to gasp everything.
What really helps sell it, though, are the missions, which add simple objectives like "build such-and-such a ride" or "hire this person" to help daisy-chain the whole learn-by-doing experience. It's not so much hand holding as just pointing you in the proper direction. With the amount of stuff you'll eventually pick up in the 8-10 hours of playing through the game, that's not a bad thing. The sheer number of mini-games, attractions and light micro-management that's in place here will mean you'll probably keep learning how to properly tweak things all the way up to the end.
It all starts with staff; mechanics, cheerleaders and groundskeepers have to be hired and then trained if you're going to keep rides in operation, keep crowds happy and keep all that puke generated from your custom mega-coaster off the pavement. You train, just like everything else in Thrillville, by actually performing actions (or, in this case, mini-games); mechanics build paths for electricity in a puzzle-like set of pre-selected pieces, cheerleaders participate in a rhythm game that throws multiple face buttons at you from eight different directions that you have to point your analog stick at while timing the button presses and groundskeepers have a vacuum and a hose and a time limit to suck up or wash off garbage and puke all over the park.
It all starts with creating a character, which you can then tweak with the usual bevy of options; hair, clothing, and color tweaks, and a more than a few pre-set templates for height, age and gender. With your avatar chosen, you can hop into the storyline, which involves your semi-insane Uncle Mortimer gifting you with running his amusement park, Thrillville. As things move on and you learn the basics, you'll start the process of revitalizing the other parks to combat the encroaching thread of rival Globo-Joy.
But I'm getting ahead of myself here. See, if Frontier Developments had thrown the whole business of managing the park at you, not even the most OCD-addled MBA would be able to juggle everything from the start, which is why It's slowly spoon fed out over the course of the game's five differently themed parks (each also contain multiple sections within that theme), allowing you to learn things a bit at a time before finally being turned loose to fully run the final park.
Right from the start, the game teaches by actually having you do things. By stepping into a handful of colored light columns, you're given a basic overview of park operations and then given an example that counts toward you total goals. See, goals help build cash and slowly move you toward enough progress to open up the next park, though you're never forced to jump ahead. The go-at-your-own-pace approach works, and works well, since it will likely take a little longer than the first park to really start to gasp everything.
What really helps sell it, though, are the missions, which add simple objectives like "build such-and-such a ride" or "hire this person" to help daisy-chain the whole learn-by-doing experience. It's not so much hand holding as just pointing you in the proper direction. With the amount of stuff you'll eventually pick up in the 8-10 hours of playing through the game, that's not a bad thing. The sheer number of mini-games, attractions and light micro-management that's in place here will mean you'll probably keep learning how to properly tweak things all the way up to the end.
It all starts with staff; mechanics, cheerleaders and groundskeepers have to be hired and then trained if you're going to keep rides in operation, keep crowds happy and keep all that puke generated from your custom mega-coaster off the pavement. You train, just like everything else in Thrillville, by actually performing actions (or, in this case, mini-games); mechanics build paths for electricity in a puzzle-like set of pre-selected pieces, cheerleaders participate in a rhythm game that throws multiple face buttons at you from eight different directions that you have to point your analog stick at while timing the button presses and groundskeepers have a vacuum and a hose and a time limit to suck up or wash off garbage and puke all over the park.
